AMIDST public outcry against the judgements and utterances of some lower and appellate court justices, the National Judicial Commission (NJC) has begun a self-cleansing of the Bench.
The first of such justices to incur the wrath of the NJC is Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumein of the Court of Appeal who issued a controversial order in the Kano State governorship appeal.
LEADERSHIP learnt that Justice Adumein is to face sanction for his inability to discover and address a typographical error in the controversial judgement.
The authoritative source said many Nigerians who were commenting on the Kano judgement were yet to read it and added that the error in the verdict was an honest clerical error.
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He said notwithstanding, he (judge) has to pay for his mistake.
“Many Nigerians who are talking about the judgement have not read it. The error in the judgment was a clerical error but I am not making excuses for him; he is going to answer for it because ignorance is no excuse in law, he will take responsibility for It.
“The error in that judgement occurred from the clerk who worked on it. The judge did not read the conclusion of the judgment after it was worked on by the secretary. The judge and the secretary who worked on it have to face the consequences,” he insisted.
The source further said it is only in the judiciary that erring judicial officers are named and shamed.
According to him, by this, the judiciary is more transparent that the two other arms of government.
He said the NJC does not in any way shield its justices who are found to have committed infractions.
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The source said, “About 98 percent of petitions against justices are frivolous but the ones they find merit in, are investigated and the judges are either suspended or dismissed.
“The NJC pays the salaries of all the judges in the federation and that is why we are able to discipline them when they are found guilty. NJC is like a court to the justices because both the complainant and the judge are represented by a lawyer, where all the issues are argued.
“After listening to them, they will either dismiss the petition or sanction the judge, depending on the argument put forward. Most of the cases against the judges at the NJC are supposed to go to the Appeal Court.
“It is only the judiciary that names and shames its own, other arms of government don’t do that. The judiciary is more transparent than other arms of government,” he declared.
